Michael Buffer Feels 'Bad' for Botching Ben Askren's Name in Jake Paul Fight (Exclusive)

Michael Buffer feels "Just as bad as" Ben Askren does after botching his name on Saturday night.

The legendary ring announcer was on hand to introduce the former UFC star and his opponent, YouTuber Jake Paul, at the Triller Fightclub main event in Atlanta Georgia.

In a night of much bizarreness, one more stranger turn was taken when the veteran caller intro'd, in his trademark emphatic baritone, "Funky Ben.... Askew."

"Askew" accurately describes the look the confused fighter immediately shot him; surely Michael Buffer, the man who makes between $25k to $1million every time he utters "Let's get ready to Rumblllllle," the man who has made a reported $400million to date from his famous catchphrase, the man who is so in demand, he only had to turn up for this one final fight of the night to get paid, would not have got his name wrong?

It turns out, he had.

"Oh thanks for bringing that up," Buffer winced when asked after returning to LAX on Sunday. "I did — I really feel bad. Yeah, it happens."

"I'm hard on myself, believe me," he added.

Ben Askew turned out to be somewhat of an apt misnomer, after his head was knocked askew from a vicious right hand from Paul, sending him to the canvas and ultimately out of the match after just 119 seconds.

But according to Buffer, his slip up didn't throw Askren off.

"No. He's a professional. That's not gonna throw him off," he insisted. "But yeah — I'm gonna try to find a way to reach out to him personally and let him know I feel just as bad as he did, sure."

If anyone could give Michael abuse over it, it's his equally famous half brother Bruce Buffer, who announces fights over with the UFC.... but he won't.

"No, because I wouldn't do it to him and he won't do it to me," Michael insisted. "We'll have a few laughs over it, though..."

As for Paul meanwhile, Buffer agrees he is now a legitimate draw in boxing, having won his first three fights, and all by knockout... although he has yet to fight an actual boxer.

Paul has for a while now been pursuing the biggest possible crossover fight payday, by challenging Conor McGregor; but Michael doesn't see it happening.

"There's about a 40 pound difference," he pointed out, adding it would need the unlikely blessing of a boxing commission. "Unless Conor gained a lot of weight recently."

"Ben Askew" was just one crazy moment in a night full of them: from MC Pete Davidson hilariously insulting both fighters, to professional boxer Ivan Redkach's flop to the canvass and being carried off on a stretcher after being floored by a phantom low blow that didn't go anywhere near him; from Oscar De La Hoya being unable to string a coherent sentence together and repeatedly calling an American fighter "USSR", to Snoop Dogg's weed getting everyone in the building contact high.